WILL I FIND WORK?

[Marcello]

Hello everybody.

My wife and I have made the decision for the big move

We are a family of 4 so to be out of work for quite a while is a scary thought, My wife is a speech therapist here

in SA and I'm a self employed business owner. Now in mentioning the above I have been a business owner since

I left school so references and my CV would be a little sparse to say the least. I might have a lot of experience but

not Aussie exp as read in this forum. I am in the soft furnishing retail and wholesale trade with a few stores under

my belt. Would this carry any weight over there??

Regards

Marcello

[Mara]

Marcello, I did a search on Seek for "speech therapist" just for the past week, with the number of ads, across Australia, I would doubt that your wife would have a problem getting employment. So.. if at least one of you gets employment almost immediately, then that gives the other a breather to find one.

Here is my search link:

http://www.seek.com.au/jobs/in-australia/#dateRange=7&workType=0&industry=&occupation=&graduateSearch=false&salaryFrom=0&salaryTo=999999&salaryType=annual&advertiserID=&advertiserGroup=&keywords=speech+therapist&page=1&displaySuburb=&seoSuburb=&isAreaUnspecified=false&location=&area=&nation=3000&sortMode=KeywordRelevance&searchFrom=filters&searchType=

You could also look for jobs for yourself, and see what comes up. I am not sure where you would like to settle, so my search above was for the whole of Australia.

[rozellem]

With a 3 and 5 year old of my own ( so I am moving in the toddler circles) I can tell you that speach therapists are in GREAT demand in Sydney. I cant remember if you have a visa yet, but needless to say, make your wife the main applicant, then you can work in any field you fancy.

[Eyebrow]

Speech therapists seems to be coining it here. AT $165 per session, I cant afford speech therapy here for my son... In RSA he had it 2x/week.

[Riekie]

Speech therapists seems to be coining it here. AT $165 per session, I cant afford speech therapy here for my son... In RSA he had it 2x/week.

Wow, that's quite expensive! Are there not speech therapists at any of the public hospitals?

Just found this link - have a look:

http://www.rch.org.au/speech/

Maybe worth it to contact them. It should be covered under medicare.

[rozellem]

Wow, that's quite expensive! Are there not speech therapists at any of the public hospitals?

Just found this link - have a look:

http://www.rch.org.au/speech/

Maybe worth it to contact them. It should be covered under medicare.

Sadly Eyebrow is on a 457 and does not qualify.

[Riekie]

Sadly Eyebrow is on a 457 and does not qualify.

Dang!

[Marcello]

Thank you everybody for the most helpful feedback.

[WernerS]

Marcello, I wonder if your questions were really answered...

You are an entrepreneur. You became one for a reason. You built a business.

There are not many people who can say that

Use whatever means at your disposal to get in. Once you are, you just do it all over again

[Shaguftha]

Hi there can anyone advise how easy it is to secure employment for a social worker or within the employee wellness sector as this is the field I currently work in. I am a qualified social worker with at least 10 years exp with approximately 7 years in the employee wellness sector. I am also completing an go ours degree industrial psychology. How easy would it be to gain employment in Australia given that I have 3 kids and a hubby who is self employed and a businessman. Any advice and feedback will be appreciated.

Honours degree industrial psychology and not "go ours" degree. Lol

[monsta]

Hey Shaguftha,

Do you have a VISA already?

If you don't, you first need to appreciate the process can take 5 months or 5 years. Secondly given thr VISA costs, flights, etc...your move to Aussie will cost well over R100 000.

Lastly, being away from family and friends is really, really hard!

If you need a VISA and are willing to accept the difficulties and costs then just reply and say so. There are many good agents on the forum. At least one will respond to you on this forum

[Shaguftha]

Hi thanks for the info. I am aware of the time and cost involved in the process. I don't have a visa as yet but have already consulted with 2 agents from different companies and was therefore just finding out a little more info. About employment prospects in my field. My hubby is not very keen in applying for this process as he feels we lead a comfortable settled life here with no need for uprooting ourselves to start afresh in a new country and that too with no family and friends hit I am thinking about the better future opportunities for my kids. Don't know if others that have made the move shared the same dilemma?

[Mara]

There have been plenty of folk where one partner felt the need to move far stronger than the other. You will both have to get on the same page or the stress will cause huge problems for you.

With regard to work, I guess the easiest way to guess the probability of finding work is to go to

Http://www.seek.com.au

Plug in what you are looking for and see how many vacancies there are. This should answer your question.

[RedPanda]

There have been the odd post about couples where only one person was on board, sometimes the other one changed their mind in favour of emigration, sometimes not. Mostly people have said that it would be very very difficult to "carry" a partner who did not want to move. Also mentioning that the stresses of landing in a totally new environment can be huge. So most people recommend trying to get your partner on the same page before you move. But this can be a contentious issue, and I seem to remember that one or two people actually split up over it. But it really depends on how strongly the people feel about their respective views.

I know many people say that they are comfortable in South Africa, that things are not so bad, yet. (Even those who say that things are not so bad, often add "yet" to the end). It's a matter of choice who you believe, but I believe economists and political analysts when they say that SA has passed the tipping point and that things will only deteriorate further from here. We have load shedding, not because of a temporary problem that will soon be fixed, it's because our power grid has been neglected for about two decades and is starting to fall apart everywhere. Water shedding has been proposed as a reality that some people will have to face in the near future. Public schools cannot be trusted any more. I lectured for a semester, I have seen what it does to people's practical reasoning abilities when they don't learn trigonometry at school.(yes, some genius took that out of the syllabus a few years ago, and I mean they removed it from the subject you need to take before studying engineering) The currency has been steadily devaluing for the past two decades, do you have any desire for your children to see other parts of the world? well, that will become more and more expensive. If the SA government goes on with the quota system, and enforces it on a per business scale it can have devastating effects for anyone who is not black. An Indian masters student that I know said he was working at a company as an intern, but they could not hire him because their total allowed quota of one Indian employee was already full. (I don't know what sector this was in, and I don't know if all sectors are equally closely scrutinised) But the point is that this can be a reality for the next decade. I know of other people who said that some positions in their companies are simply left vacant because they can't find the right combination of skills and race to be allowed to employ someone in the job.

Anyway, sorry this turned out longer than I planned. At the end of the day I believe that some people will still be able to run businesses and make a good income, but I don't think the infrastructure to support it will be here for long. And as the gap grows between the poorest South Africans and even the middle class, there will be increased crime.

I think if you have children then you should be looking at the 10, 20 and 30 year prospects of your country.

[Shaguftha]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this regard. Much appreciated. I share your sentiments and that is why I've decided on enquiring about this process but I guess fear of change sometimes takes over more in terms of battling to make ends meet in a foreign country with no family and friend support system. The process of applying for the 189 visa is costly and not to mention a lengthy process with risk of it being unsuccessful. Then there's the question of getting the visa and thereafter battling to find employment. I have checked the www.seek. au site which has various positions for social workers but again to be successful in securing that job is something that worries me. Are there others out there that battled to find employment and how did u manage? Too many "what if" questions with many risks but again the future of my kids are also very important.

[blung]

Build it and they will come

[rozellem]

I can only speak for myself, and we applied for the 189 type visa in 2005, so the $ cost has changed a lot. We applied as an insurance policy for our future. We had never been to Aus, had no burning desire to go, but we anticipated that we might want to make a move sometime in the future, couldn't quite see us being old people there. We applied, it took 1 and a half years to be granted. Then we had to activate the visa within a year, which we did on a holiday. Pretty surreal arriving somewhere new and already holding permanent residency there. Then we went home and spent another two years doing stuff we still wanted to do. In that time we got really fed up with were we were living and we were so ready to go. We arrived 17 Nov '08 and its been a resounding success for us. We arrived as two people with 15 boxes. Now we have two kids and our own home in Sydney, a pool, a car, a Vespa, bikes, surfboards, bats, rackets.....the whole 9 yards. Its not for everybody, but perhaps think of it as planning for your future. The frog in the hot water thing is so startling for us to see when we visit RSA, I want to go shake people awake Dont boil.

[Shaguftha]

Hi Rozellum

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. That's pretty much what I have been thinking about for applying for the 189 visa to apply as an insurance policy. How long did it take you guys to secure employment? It's just that leaving everything behind and starting from scratch is a little scary especially if employment has to be found in a foreign country. I guess my fears also stem from the fact that I follow the Islamic faith and I have heard a little about individuals following this faith have been harassed in Australia which is not so common here in SA. I would welcome comments from other SA Muslim immigrants in this regard as being discriminated against due to your culture and faith is unfair and goes against respecting the human rights of an individual.

[rozellem]

Sha, arrived 17 Nov, hubby was working by the 8th of Des. He is in IT and took a contract in IT support or something he had not done in years. Two months later they got ready to launch into something he did in his last job, so he spoke up and they got him to do it. Cue permanent contract and raise.

Harassing Muslims is not commom practice here. Unless you are moving to the sticks or somewhere where people are extraordinarily ignorant, you should not have any problems. People here like a peaceful, civilised society. If you treat people with respect and kindness, you should be getting the same love back.

[Shaguftha]

Hi Roz, thnx for all the info. It's good to hear that Muslims are not harassed there as that was a concern for me. Reading of ppl's exp of battling to secure employment due to a lack of Ozzie wk experience is what is worrying me especially with the high cost of living in Ozzie. I have 3 kids and hubby is self employed here with me a social worker by profession . We both lead a comfortable life here but the future uncertainty of SA is something that has made me question the need for relocation but given so many disadvantages to moving in relation to advantages is also something we as a family need to think about as culture, family support are also vital issues of concern to us just as much as safety , security and peace of mind. I keep questioning whether we will manage without the rest of my family and what if we battle to make ends meet there after selling up everything here. At least for you, there were no kids when you arrived there so a little easier to adjust and manage.

[Guest]

Hello Shaguftha, Just to give my 2 cents worth. It was actually me that was completely against emigrating and my husband was the one who kept pestering me. I must say it did take me awhile to get on board but prior to that it did cause a few disagreements. I must agree with what other members have said, that unless both partners are really on the same page it can be very stressful. The main thing is to understand your partners fears and communicate. I had already moved from the UK and I really didnt want to uproot again when we were comfortable here in SA. I am not quite sure what changed my mind, it was almost as if it happened overnight, the fear is still there, and its all the "what if's? those are the things that keep you up at night so I completely understand. But we also have a son he is nearly 4 and we want to make a life for him. I dont want him to grow up and say to us "Mum why didn't you give it a go"?

As regards Australians and how they treat Muslims, my husband has a few Muslim friends that have moved over to Oz a few years ago, and they have never encountered any problems. I do think that Australia is probably more diverse than SA in terms of its people and culture and there are a wide variety of people who emigrate each year. I think you will be fine.

My advice open up a LinkedIn account and start networking.Also check out these 2 sites. One a job search and the other one outlook gives you an idea of job prospects and earnings in your field of work. Good luck :-)

http://www.adzuna.com.au/

http://joboutlook.gov.au/